Page 15 - The Marriage Covenant

of the covenant. Since the covenant was focused upon a godly seed, it is appropriate that the
sign of the covenant should be made in the procreative organ of the man. Yahweh required
that Abraham and his sons be circumcised.
The timing of this was very important. Abraham’s first son Ishmael had already been
born. He was thirteen years old, but he was not the promised seed from which a holy nation
would come. When Abraham had relations with Hagar, he was not yet circumcised.

Genesis 17:24-26
Now Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his
foreskin. And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the
flesh of his foreskin. In the very same day Abraham was circumcised, and Ishmael
his son.

The circumcision of the male sexual organ is literally a cutting away, and removal, of
the flesh. It represented that man’s fleshly strength would not be utilized to fulfill the
promise of a godly heritage. “The flesh profits nothing.” The flesh of man could not produce
righteous and holy seed. God would bring forth this seed, and He would insure that
Abraham would have the offspring his heart desired, an offspring that could forever stand
in the presence of a holy God.
It was immediately after Abraham was circumcised that Yahweh again appeared to
him and informed him that the next year when God visited him, he would have a son
through Sarah. Thus, Isaac was born AFTER the covenant of circumcision was made
between Abraham and God.
Yahweh’s covenant with Abraham was not one of Law, for the Law would not be given
for another 430 years (Galatians 3:17). It was a covenant of promise. Yahweh was saying He
would accomplish what had been promised, and Abraham’s part was to believe God.

Galatians 3:17-18
What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later,
does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the
promise. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise;
but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.

This covenant of circumcision involved some of the same symbols as the earlier
covenant. There was flesh that was cut, and there was blood. There was also symbolized the
impotence of man to accomplish the purposes of God. The removal of the foreskin of the
male sex organ was a testimony that man’s flesh must be removed out of the way in order
for God to accomplish His promise. Man could not contribute anything from his flesh. His
part was to look to Yahweh in faith.
Abraham had sought to accomplish the promise of God, and obtain a hope of a godly
heritage, by having relations with his wife’s handmaiden Hagar. Yahweh rejected this “fruit”
for the same reason that He had rejected Cain’s offering. It was the fruit of man’s own
fleshly efforts. It was not an offering of faith. Man must be brought to realize his impotence
to produce anything from his own fleshly strength that will merit God’s regard.
Returning once again to the early covenant where the animals were cut in two and the
blood flowed between them, the Scriptures declare that “the soul (nephesh) is in the blood.”
What did these severed pieces of flesh and the blood signify but “the soul in two halves.”